CALL OF THE MASTODON

"Call of the Mastodon" is a compilation album release by US metal act Mastodon. The album was released through Relapse Records in February 2006. It bridges the gap between Mastodon´s second- and third full-length studio albums "Leviathan" (2004) and "Blood Mountain" (2006). "Call of the Mastodon" features all nine tracks from Mastodon´s "9 Song Demo" from 2000. After only a few shows original Mastodon lead vocalist Eric Saner left, and guitarist Brent Hinds and bassist Troy Sanders subsequently re-recorded the vocal tracks on the "9 Song Demo". The demo tracks featuring the re-recorded vocal tracks first apppeared on the three separate releases. "Demo 2001" and the two 2001 EPs "Slick Leg" and "Lifesblood". One track on the former, three tracks on "Slick Leg" and five tracks on "Lifesblood". So this compilation is the first time all nine demo tracks featuring the re-recorded vocal tracks have been released in its entirety.

Stylistically Mastodon play a hard to describe type of metal, influenced by sludge, thrash, hardcore, and even death metal. The vocals are angry, shouting, and are often doubled by the two vocalists. The soundscape is raw, brutal, and busy, and Mastodon already this early on proved that they were a technically well playing unit. Drummer Brann Dailor is on fire throughout the release, driving the music forward in a both powerful and creative fashion, while guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher produce one heavy, occasionall even brutal, yet sophisticated and intriguing riff after another. The songwriting is creative but generally lacks memorable and hook laden moments, and it´s in that department that Mastodon still needed to hone their skills. Considering that Mastodon formed the same year as recording the material featured on "Call of the Mastodon", and the fact that this was originally released as a demo, it´s still quite the impressive early release from Mastodon and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Mastodon probably needs no introduction to fans of modern metal music. Leviathan was one of the defining metal releases of the 2000s, and Crack the Skye proved they could play progressive rock as well as many of the genre's '70s stalwarts. Their blend of progressive metal and sludge earned them a justifiable reputation as one of the most formidable forces in the genre.

Call of the Mastodon, however, is not as widely known. It's a re-release of the band's original demo with a rearranged track order and new vocals by Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds (replacing the vocals of original vocalist Eric Saner, who only appeared on the band's first demo). Some of the songs here were also re-recorded for their early EP releases Lifesblood and Slick Leg. (The reordering of the tracks annoys me since I've been used to the demo's song order since 2004, and due to the fact that several songs segue seamlessly into one another, simply reordering my playlist here doesn't sound too great).

More annoyingly, the material has also been given a really bad remastering. The original demo was fairly loud, which is fine - it's sludge; it's supposed to be loud. Here, though, the mastering is so loud that the material clips throughout, with the result that Brann Dailor's virtuosic drumming sounds muffled and distorted.

I honestly kind of miss Saner's vocals here. I don't think Saner would have been a good fit for the band's later material, but his vocals on the original demo were a good match for the band's unearthly roar. Which vocals a listener prefers will probably be down to personal taste. Sanders and Hinds' vocals are fine, of course; if you've enjoyed the harsh vocals on later Mastodon material, you probably won't have much of a problem with the ones here either.

While the band demonstrates some of the progressive sensibilities that would later stretch some of their songs past the ten-minute mark, none of the songs here reaches much past four and a half minutes. The band is most interested in pummelling you with an endless succession of killer sludge riffs. These riffs often result in unusual song structures (nearly every song changes meter signature at least once, and most of them contain compound meters like 5/4 or 7/4), but compared to their later material (particularly from after they signed to a major label), it's heavy.

The band's later material is definitely more sophisticated, and a listener expecting an experience like that of Crack the Skye will be in for a huge shock. However, this is definitely recommended for fans of more adventurous sludge. I'd give the demo a four-and-a-half star rating, but since the reordering of the tracks and horrible remastering here annoyed me, I'll give this version of the release a solid four stars.

One final note: If you have the choice, I'd pick up the Japanese version of this compilation rather than the domestic release. It contains a bonus track (a ferocious performance of "Where Strides the Behemoth" from Remission) and add the film samples that were included in the Lifesblood versions of these tracks, which often provides some interesting flavour for the songs (especially "Battle at Sea").

Note: This is a revision of a review I wrote for Metal Archives of Mastodon's original demo. Some aspects have been changed due to the differences in the material.

The sheer destruction and immanent brutality of 'Call of the Mastodon' is a marker for the quality of those early 2000s Relapse Records releases and this very first impression of the soon-to-be progressive metal flagbearers Mastodon is immensely impressive for its raw and energetic sounds, moody twists and experimental shifts. As the story goes, the songs on here were initially making up the '9-song demo' of the band, released in the year 2000 and featuring original vocalist Eric Saner. Following his departure, Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds re-recorded the vocals and updated the songs, which were released on the early EPs 'Lifesblood' and 'Slick Leg'. Some years later all of the songs were remixed and remastered, ultimately to be released in 2006 as the compilation album 'Call of the Mastodon', a collection of songs some band members refer to as the proper debut studio album, and while officially not one, we might as well see this work as the zero album and surely the precursor to 2002's 'Remission'.

Stylistically these songs are pertinent to the extreme metal genre and some of its sub-genres like metalcore and mathcore, since the music is incredibly dynamic, technical, unhinged and overly aggressive. At the same time, we also have the sludge metal riffs and gorging, grizzly vocals that add another interesting dimension to the music, which is emphasized by the inherently progressive writing with all of the unpredictable, often chaotic and labyrinthian movements within the songs themselves. It becomes obvious that this is the right recipe for a benign work of creative destruction, with exhilarating entries like 'Shadows That Move', 'Hail to Fire', 'Battle at Sea', 'Deep Sea Creature', 'Slickleg', or the title track. This entire album runs for a little less than half an hour but it is packed with dense and manic songs that form an essential part of Mastodon's history, and for this reason is one of the essential early releases.